greyhawkfandomcom-20200213-history
Policies
This page discusses and explains the policies of this wikia, as discussed here. Once these policies have been finalised, this header can be replaced with a better summary of the page. For guides on tone and style, please see the Manual of Style for this wiki. General Policies 'Written Content' *'This wikia should never be able to be used as a replacement for purchasing the actual books of any edition. This includes both mechanics and lore.' *Rules and Mechanics (Such as creature statistics, class features and so on) should only be included when necessary. If such content is contained within that editions SRD (see below), it may be shared as written in the SRD. If such content is not contained within the SRD, it either should not be included, or written in such a way that is it remains useful knowledge while obfuscating the rules. For example, if a race has a +2 to intelligence, write 'increased intelligence' or 'higher intelligence on average'. Names of abilities, feats and so on can be included but explained minimally if at all. If certain information is dependent on dice roll (such as weight and height), the average or upper and lower limits should be given, with no mention of the exact dice used. *Descriptions and Lore cannot be transcribed word for word from any copyrighted text. Such content must always be reworded and simplified in a way that doesn't devalue the original source. If possible this rewording should include information from other sources, in such a way that it expands on the knowledge in a meaningful way. *All content must be cited. 'Files and External Links' *Any file from WotC's www.wizards.com should not be shared directly via link, but instead the link should direct to the relevant page on Wizards' site from where it can be download. This is a Fan Site Policy (see below). *External links should be used minimally, and link to official and/or trusted sources. They may be neccesary when wanting to direct to information that cannot be shared fully on the wikia due to licensing, but then the linked site must also be licensed to share (such as linking to WotC own cite or affiliated/endorsed cites that have the right to publish the full information). *Links to fellow fan sites, such as forums, blogs and other wikis and archives, should be done with admin permission or because they must be cited for a source. *Links to pirated pdfs or content,or links to sites that link to or encourage piracy, will be removed. This wikia does not encourage piracy in any form. 'Images' *No image that is not covered by Creative Commons, Public Domain or been given express permission to use should be above 1000px on any dimension. If the original image was smaller than 1000px on any dimension, then it should be reduced in size further if it is possible to do so without loosing all quality. This is to protect the value of the original image and fall under fair use. *Images should be referenced the same as content- material source of the image and artist should be given on the images page in it's description, and in captions on any page it's used. If possible the artist's own website or details should be linked from the image's own page. If multiple sources use the image, all should be given on the images own page and the one most relevant to the page the image is being used for should be cited in the caption. **If an artist is unknown, an 'Unknown Artist' template should be added to the image's page to tag it for further investigation. If possible, try noting down any possible artists creditted by the source material (sometimes listed at the front or back page). *Images, when possible, should be left uneditted from the original. If cropping is necessary, a link to the full image should be provided in the caption and on the images page. If cropping would remove the artist's signature, the signature should be moved if possible into the frame. Such edits should be noted in the images description on it's page, and 'Editted image' included in it's caption description. 'Legalities' Please note that these policies are guidelines to avoid copyright infringement and to protect and support the game, it's writers and artists. They are not laws and legalisation that can be referenced for any legal disputes, but purely as guidelines and policies for the contents of this wikia. 'Disclaimer' Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 2019 Wizards. All Rights Reserved. This wikia is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This wikia may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards' Fan Site Policy *. For example, Dungeons & Dragons® is a trademarks of Wizards of the Coast. For more information about Wizards of the Coast or any of Wizards' trademarks or other intellectual property, please visit their website at (www.wizards.com). *The site tends to redirect to the main features page. If it does please use the search function provided on the site to search for 'Fan Site Kit' to find the page linked. 'Use of Copyrighted Material' Care should be taken to make sure content on this wiki falls within Fandom's Rules on Copyright and WotC's own rules on publicly shared content, as described further below. The two important points from Fandom's rules are: "Your use of the material will be likely to qualify as a fair use or similar exception" and "The material you want to use is licensed under a Creative Commons or other open license that permits free reuse." Material that falls only under "having permission of the copyright owner" should be avoided where possible, as such permissions can be hard to prove and can become complicated when the work has multiple owners. Materials that have been "Created by yourself" should also be avoided as this wikia intends to refer to official materials only rather than fan created works. These materials can be included or linked if admin permission has been granted first. U.S. Copyright Office: Literary Works: Games "A registration for a game covers all of the copyrightable elements that appear in the work, regardless of whether the game has been registered as a literary work or a work of the visual arts. However, copyright does not protect the idea for a game, the name or title of a game, or the procedure, process, or method of operation for playing a game. Nor does copyright protect any idea, system, method, or device involved in developing or marketing a game. Once a game has been made available to the public, the copyright law cannot be used to prevent others from developing another game based on similar principles. Copyright protects only the particular expression that appears in the literary or artistic elements that the work may contain. See 17 U.S.C. § 102(b); 37 C.F.R. § 202.1." (714: Games, Chapter 700, pg 17, 2017) What this means for this wikia: this wikia can share very basic concepts related to the game, including earlier editions not covered by the OGL or GSL. This does not include artwork or descriptive text and at most allows fair use claims for basic, unexplained rules and mechanics (Such as names of attacks, feats and abilities). However, to protect the value of the game and it's resources, this wikia doesn't encourage sharing of rules and mechanics not contained within the SRD and for all other rules and content to be shared minimally and with enough obfuscation that the content is still true to the game and of valuable content to the wikia, without devaluing the original content. For example, if a race has a +2 to intelligence, write 'increased intelligence' or 'higher intelligence on average'. Please Note that this extract alone does not explain the full complexities or cover of WotC and related companies' copyright over Dungeons and Dragons and the Greyhawk Campaign setting and it's related content. It cannot and should not be used to republish content verbatim from any source not covered by the OGL, GSL or Public Domain or Creative Commons. It's only purpose here is to help explain and define fair use of certain terms and content. 'Wizard of The Coast's Policies: Fan Sites, OGL, GSL, SRD.' WotC has many policies in place to try and legally allow fan created sites such as this wikia, and we should endeavour to remain within these boundaries first and foremost. 'Fan Site Policy' Please note the following points are not the full exhaustive list of the Fan Site Policy, but the points most relevant to this wikia for easy referencing. Make sure to read the full policy on their website . Relevant points for this wikia include: *"Wizards' Trademarks and Product Images. You may use Wizards' trademarks and copyrighted product images and printed materials provided in the relevant Tool Kit only for the purpose of display, identification and discussion of Wizards' products as expressly permitted in this Policy. You may not use Wizards trademarks on or in connection with products other than genuine Wizards products, unless such use is specifically granted to you under the terms of the Game System License ("GSL") or another separate written contract with Wizards." *"No Alteration. If you download Wizards Materials from a Wizards' Tool Kit, you must display such Wizards Materials without alteration (except that you may make proportionate reductions in size as technically necessary to accommodate posting on your Fan Site)." *"Use of Non-Public Information Prohibited. You may not publish, display, exhibit or use any information about products (including any photographs, game text, rules, or drawings of such new products or their prototypes) that has not already been released to the general public by Wizards or that Wizards has otherwise expressly authorized for release to the collector community." *No Endorsement or Sponsorship. You may not use or display Wizards' trademarks or copyrighted materials in a manner likely to create the impression that Wizards is an official sponsor or author of your Fan Site, or that Wizards endorses or has otherwise expressly licensed the Fan Site. Any endorsement or sponsorship must be approved by Wizards in a separate agreement. *Use Trademark and Copyright Notices. All Fan Sites must include the correct copyright and trademark information on each page that contains content related to Wizards' property. When referencing specific game names, game terms, or characters, the appropriate TM or ® should be used as provided in the relevant Tool Kit. For example, "Wizards of the Coast, Dungeons & Dragons, and their logos are trademarks of Wizards of the Coast LLC in the United States and other countries. © 2015sic Wizards. All Rights Reserved." Further, on every page of a Fan Site where Wizards Materials appear, you must include the following notice in a font legible to end users of the Fan Site: "This site is not affiliated with, endorsed, sponsored, or specifically approved by Wizards of the Coast LLC. This site may use the trademarks and other intellectual property of Wizards of the Coast LLC, which is permitted under Wizards' Fan Site Policy link. For example, Dungeons & Dragons® is a trademarks of Wizards of the Coast. For more information about Wizards of the Coast or any of Wizards' trademarks or other intellectual property, please visit their website at (www.wizards.com)." *Link to Wizards' Webpage, Not to a File. When providing links to Wizards' documents, we ask that Fan Sites link to the appropriate Wizards webpage and not directly to the document file. This allows users to access the most up-to-date information. *Trade Dress and Advertising Elements. Although imitation may be the sincerest form of flattery, you may not imitate Wizards' logos, trade dress, or other elements of Wizards product packaging and website. Such imitation could result in confusion for others about a Fan Sites' affiliation with or sponsor ship by Wizards. *You May Not Change or Manipulate Wizards' Audio-visual Materials. You may not download, display, exhibit or otherwise use sound tracks, sound bites, phonorecords, motion pictures, videos, DVD or other streamed moving images (either full-length or clips) from the Wizards website or other sources that contain Wizards copyrighted materials or trademarks except as provided in the tool kit. Such audio-visual materials often are subject to production and distribution agreements with third parties. Accordingly, you should only link to such material where it is hosted on our website unless otherwise provided to you in a tool kit. *You may not make content from the Wizards website (audio-visual materials excluded) available through your own site if such use entails Wizards hosting such content for you on Wizards' website. For example, you may not make available on a Fan Site any content from Wizards' Web site in a frame, mirror, Iframe, widget, nor may you link directly to a wallpaper file hosted on Wizards' website. *Inaccurate, Obscene or Libelous Statements Prohibited. Wizards welcomes and encourages honest discussion and opinions about all Wizards products on Fan Sites. However, we cannot allow Wizards Materials be used on any Fan Site that promotes sexually explicit materials, violence, discrimination or illegal activities, or makes disparaging, libelous or dishonest statements about Wizards and/or its products, employees and agents. We know you'll keep it clean. The Fan Site pack includes a few materials relevant to D&D as a whole and 5th edition. While the materials themselves may not be of much use to the wikia, the rules pertaining to them should be followed closely for all other WotC (and earlier TSR) materials used. 'Open Game License, Game System License, and System Reference Document' 5th and 3rd (3.0 and 3.5) edition falls under the OGL (Open Game License) and 4th edition is under the GSL (Game System License). Earlier editions created under TSR fall under no such licenses. These licenses allow content from each editions respective system reference document (3e , 4e, 5e Note: I can't find an official link to the 4th Edition SRD. The one from this page is broken. Any information would be appreciated.) to be used verbatim or copied with minimal changes and shared. See WotC page on the SRD and how it works with 5th edition for further examples and explanation. What this means for this wiki is that any rules and mechanics within the SRD can be shared directly on this site if neccesary. Rule descriptions and lore not covered in the SRD, cannot be shared with the same leniency even if the related base mechanics are in the SRD. For example, High Elf racial statistics for player characters may be within the SRD for an edition and these rules can be shared verbatim, but this does not mean the High Elf description text from other sources (such as the PHB or DMG) can be shared verbatim.